The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women - Erwin Blumenfeld

Erwin Blumenfeld (1897-1969) was a photographer who captured most of Vogue covers during the forties and fifties. No other photographer did so many covers for one fashion magazine.

The Doe Eye (1950), featuring Jean Patchett

The documentary Erwin Blumenfeld: The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women was an inspiration to see, with many famous photographs from the archives of Blumenfeld, not only his fashion photos but also his artistic ones.
The documentary discusses his life and career. It shows that he couldn't support his life with photography. But when he passed the age of forty and moved to New York his career took off.

In the beginning of the 50s he was the highest paid photographer in the world. Working for Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Life and more.
Movie stars, models, singers; everyone wanted to pose for him.
He made portraits of Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Grace Kelly and a young Audrey Hepburn. His innovative style made a great impression.

Blumenfeld was one of the most innovative and influential photographers of the 20th century. His early black-and-white nudes are widely considered to be among his best work, although it is his colour fashion photography, which combined his technical expertise in the darkroom (where he experimented with solarisation, multiple images and combining positive and negative images) with an innate sense of style and artistry, that made him rich and famous.
He was innovating right up until the 1960s, making films to be used as beauty advertising: an idea that was ahead of its time.

Fashion Photographer Sølve Sundsbø: "He changed the rules of photography."
The obsession for women Blumenfeld was no secret. For example, he once said, "I can never love one woman. I love women." With result that his private life was a lot less successful than his career.

When Blumenfeld in 1969 dies in Rome, his many muses and mistresses claimed part of his inheritance and that was the reason that his work is never exhibited as a whole.
Only now Blumenfelds grandchildren matter, his granddaughter Nadia has taken it over and the world can see his work again. And the documentary has been made by Blumenfeld's grandson Remy Blumenfeld.

A glimpse of his work

Blumenfeld always tried to introduce and revise techniques he had developed through his experience. In this portrait of model Dovima, he relies on his masterly control of lighting. The photograph was taken through a rippled glass pane. The bubbles in the glass appear as small dots on the photograph.

Lisa Fonssagrives on the Eiffel Tower, 1939, Paris

Red on Red (1954), New York

A self portrait on his book: Eye to I, the Autobiography of a Photographer

It is also incredible to see what Erwin Blumenfeld could do with his photos in the darkroom. He did it all without using Photoshop or another softwareprogram.

For more information visit the website of Erwin Blumenfeld, created by his grandchildren.

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Fashion and art are connected. Inspiration of art in fashion goes a long time back. But inspiration of fashion on art is becoming more and more visable.
To me, as fashion graduate and photographer this connection is inspiring and I love to read, research and write about it.
Any ideas are more than welcome and I hope you will follow me on my journey of research of art in fashion and fashion in art...